The paper focuses on the future skill requirements of front office employees in the retail operations of German universal and direct banks. Bank employees in this sector consist of bank clerks who have completed vocational training in banking, employees servicing wealthy customers, and semi-skilled workers. Each group of employees is responsible for a specific customer base, and thus has particular skill requirements for dealing with that base. In the context of lean banking strategies introduced in retail banking in the 1990s, universal banks were split up into a segment for 'typical customers', where bank clerks with a completed banking apprenticeship are working, and a segment of wealthy customers, whose more complex product needs are dealt with by specially trained employees. In direct banks semi-skilled workers are responsible for another group of customers, the so called self-sufficient customers.